Understanding and controlling the transport of chemical species at the nanoscale is important for the design of novel devices and systems capable of addressing several of the issues facing chemical separations, drug delivery, and molecular sensing. Many of these technologies will rely on a membrane or film with robust mechanical properties and well-controlled pore dimensions and chemistries. In order to advance the understanding and implementation of technologies that exploit transport phenomena at the nanoscale, it is essential to make significant progress towards the fabrication and characterization of next generation, high performance mesoporous materials.
Membranes based on diblock copolymer and triblock terpolymer self-assembly have been generated through bulk casting, but these materials suffer from low permeability due to relatively thick selective layers. Mesoporous films from diblock copolymers have been fabricated by spin coating onto solid substrates; however, this method requires long annealing times and the tedious transfer of a fragile film from the primary substrate to a secondary support membrane.